A sage steers by the bright light of confusion and doubt.
ZHUANGZIThe perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.
More Zhuangzi Quotes
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The greatest tragedy that can befall a person is the atrophy of his mind.
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Horses have hoofs to carry them over frost and snow; hair, to protect them from wind and cold. They eat grass and drink water, and fling up their heels. Such is the real nature of horses.
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To be truly ignorant, be content with your own knowledge.
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A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.
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The living all find death unpleasant; men mourn over it. And yet, what is death, but the unbending of the bow and its return to its case?
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Tao is the source of both fullness and emptiness. But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness.
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Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.
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If the Way is made clear, it is not the Way.
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Those who seek to satisfy the mind of man by hampering it with ceremonies and music and affecting charity and devotion have lost their original nature.
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The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.
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Where can I find a man who has forgotten words, so I can have a few words with him?
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Cherish that which is in you and shut out that which is without, for much knowledge is a curse.
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Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views-then the world will be governed.
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The right way to go easy is to forget the right way.
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Understanding that rests in what it does not understand is the finest.
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Are you and I perchance caught up in a dream from which we have not yet awakened?
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When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. When the heart is right, “for” and “against” are forgotten. No drives, no compulsions, no needs, no attractions: Then your affairs are under control. You are a free man.
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The little child learns to speak, though it has no learned teachers – because it lives with those who know how to speak.
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Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe.
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When people do not ignore what they should ignore, but ignore what they should not ignore, this is known as ignorance.
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People value that part of knowledge which is known. They do not know how to avail themselves of the Unknown in order to reach knowledge. Is this not misguided?
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Luck implies an absolute absence of any principle.
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So if loss of what gives happiness causes you distress when it fades, you can now understand that such happiness is worthless. It is said, those who lose themselves in their desire for things also lose their innate nature by being vulgar.
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I am going to try speaking some reckless words, and I want you to try to listen recklessly.
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When affirmation and negation came into being, Tao faded. After Tao faded, then came one-sided attachments.
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He who does his work like a machine grows a heart like a machine and he who carries the heart of a machine in his breast loses his simplicity. He who has lost his simplicity becomes unsure in the strivings of his soul.
ZHUANGZI